Top Ten Countdown: Number Eight

Number Eight in my Top Ten Things I’ve Learned in 365 Days with Flylady is:

Routines are important and comforting during stressful times.

We’ve certainly had plenty of opportunity to learn this lesson over the past 12 months. From Joey having a concussion to Levi totaling his car to marathon family stomach viruses to monthly female hormones to unfairly losing our primary source of income to hosting a wedding to changing churches to opening a new business, we’ve walked through it all this year. Some of these stresses are small, some are big. The wedding and actually opening the business were positive experiences, but most of the other stressful events were far from positive from our limited human viewpoint.

There were days on end during some of these periods of stress that were almost unendurable for me mentally. My mind was constantly racing. Yet, the thing that stood out about all of these times was that, despite huge mental distractions, I could go about my daily routines because they were ROUTINE. I could just put one foot in front of the other and maintain our household even when I couldn’t think about what I was doing.

By maintain our household routines, I was able to establish a minimally disruptive atmosphere for our children, especially our young children who really are not yet able to understand exactly what is going on in the adult world but can perceive when things aren’t quite right. Our home stayed tidy and peaceful. Our clothes were clean and everyone was fed in a timely fashion.

Thanks, Flylady, for helping me establish routines that minimize the negative impact of stressful times.

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